Space news #17: A final message from MESSENGER
This week we looked back at the success of NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft as it prepares to plunge to its death on the planet it has been studying for the last four years. Like many NASA robots, MESSENGER has greatly exceeded its estimated lifetime after a six year journey. Initially expected to study Mercury for one year, it has been extended a further three years but will soon run out of fuel and fall victim to gravity. MESSENGER’s discoveries include ice at Mercury’s poles which suggest that it, like the Earth, received water from comets impacting the surface.
Hubble is currently celebrating its 25th year of observing the Universe. Various sites running special features looking back at some of the amazing images that Hubble has produced. I can still remember when Hubble first launched and the subsequent uproar when it was discovered that the primary mirror had been ground to the wrong shape, giving it blurred vision. Because the error was understood, it was possible to create a corrective lens that reversed the effect. Hubble was fitted with “spectacles” in 1993. Over the last 25 years Hubble has been visited by astronauts five times for servicing.
Looking forward, NASA has presented a design for a balloon that could be used for Human exploration of Venus. While the surface of the planet is hot enough to melt lead, the upper atmosphere is sub-zero above the cloud deck. Apart from the unlikeliness of NASA getting funding for something like this, my other concern is the name: Project Havoc. While I understand it’s a backronym, the idea of lazily drifting through the clouds in a balloon sounds relaxing. Havoc is the last thing an astronaut would want while dangling from a balloon high above Venus’ furnace-like surface.
Spaceflight
- Mexico, Russia Deepening Cooperation in Space
- Russia to Launch National Orbital Station by 2023
- Pushing the Boundaries of Propelling Deep Space Missions
- The Mercury Astronauts
- SpaceX Dragon Commercial Resupply Cargo Spacecraft Arrives
- NASA spacecraft set for death plunge into Mercury
- NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Mission Taking Shape
- Running Out Of Rockets
- Buran: The Soviet Space Shuttle
- Brazil Abandons Joint Satellite Launch System Project With Ukraine
- First Super-Heavy Angara launch to take place in 2021
- Voyager to a Star?
- NASA’s Secret Past
- Tales Of Hubble Repair Tools, Told By Photographer
- Japan to land probe on the moon in 2018
- Russia Planning Manned Flight Around Moon in 2025
- Russia Cuts Budget for New Space Program by $15Bln Due to Crisis
- Russia Abandons Plans to Build Super-Heavy Carrier Rocket
The Solar System
- Mars might have liquid water
- Will Asteroid 2012 TC4 Hit Earth in October 2017
- Layers and Dark Dunes on the Surface of Mars
- NASAs New Horizons Spacecraft Nears Historic Encounter with Pluto
- The Great Crater Hokusai
- Comet 67P on 15 April 2015
- NASA Concept Could Explore Venus with Airships
- Ceres Bright Spots’ Origins Still Unknown
- Chelyabinsk Meteor-Sized Asteroid To Give Earth Close Shave
- Rosetta and Philae find comet not magnetised
- Capstone: 2015
- Heres How The Moon Was Made
- Strange Volcanos On Weird Worlds Hint At Origins
Exoplanets
- Exomoons: A Data Search for the Orbital Sampling Effect
- An exoplanet with an infernal atmosphere
- Inner Region of Young Star and its Planets Probed
- Spitzer, OGLE spot planet deep within our galaxy
- The First Alien Planet Detected in Visible Light
- “Venus Zone” Narrows Search for Habitable Planets
- Can we find an ancient Earth-like planet with a dying biosphere?
The Universe
- “Zombie” Galaxies
- White Dwarf May Have Shredded Passing Planet
- Protosuns Found Teeming with Prebiotic Molecules
- Scientists Map the Dark Matter Around Millions of Galaxies
- “Mini Supernova” Explosion Could Have Big Impact
- Search for “Messengers from the Universe”
- Ring Galaxy AM 0644-741 from Hubble
- Search for advanced civilizations finds nothing obvious
- Why astronomers hate the lawn-mowing Roomba
- The Hubble Space Telescope: A 25th Anniversary Photo Celebration
- Cold Spot suggests largest structure in Universe
- Gravitational Waves from Merging Black Holes
- Transient Listening: A Caution
- Supermassive Black Hole Exists Where It Shouldn’t Be
- Earth May Have Experienced Dark-Matter Extinction Events
- Earth-size Black-Hole Telescope Expands to South Pole
- Supernovas Herald Change
- How To Make A Black Hole
- Hacking the Chemical Fingerprint of the Universe
- Exploding Stars Help to Understand Thunderclouds on Earth
- Most powerful space telescope ever to launch in 2018
- Supermassive black hole’s intense magnetic field
Everything else